Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders: Facing Gender-Based Violence in Defense of Land, Natural Resources and Human Rights
Publisher: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Date: 2021
Topics: Conflict Causes, Gender, Land, Protection and Access to Justice, Renewable Resources
Countries: India, Kenya
Natural resources and ecosystem services directly support millions of people’s livelihoods, providing food and water, being part of cultural and communal identities and supporting rights to life. However, increased global demand for minerals, timber, palm oil and land threaten the sustainability of these resources and the ability of people to continue surviving on, living with and conserving them. In some cases, powerful state and non-state actors exploit weak or corrupt governance structures to extract natural resources with impunity, even when doing so directly harms communities and usurps their rights to lands and resources. Responding to these environment-related stressors and threats, environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), many of whom are indigenous peoples, are organising and mobilising movements to protect their lands, territories and resources in all regions of the world. From women’s participation in the Chipko Movement in India that helped set the precedent for non-violent protest against massive deforestation, to the immensely successful women led Green Belt Movement in Kenya that empowers women in environmental conservation and advocacy, women have played and continue to play significant and critical roles as environmental defenders in these movements.